I didn't quite get this part... How do you live in a place like that if it's so dangerous? The US passport can provide access almost to any country, why did you choose this? But I think that's a great experience anyway.
Well, parts of anywhere, especially the U.S., can be pretty dangerous. The same situation could have happened if I was living in a bad part of a hundred different cities in America.
I chose the Philippines for 2 reasons, mainly: cost of living was low and I like the women. After the first time I really experienced Angeles City, woow, I was hooked! There's absolutely nothing like that in America. Here's a video if you want to get an idea of what I'm talking about (I didn't really watch it but it will give you the basic idea of what's up):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXEn9fkA7ggThen after I lived there for almost a year, I was just like, ehh... I'm over it. So I moved on. Basically, just don't be an ass and you'll be fine. You have to really be open to changing your attitude about things as well. Its good to be a "go with the flow" kind of person and not expect to have your way all the time, or you'll be extremely disappointed.
The discussion is getting funny at the same time serious in here.
It is kind of romantic when someone from a much well-off country (which I suppose you are from) speaks of canned sardines and carinderias in a positive way. The sad thing, however, is that ₱60 may be cheap to you but not to many of the ordinary citizens here. If one ordinary worker spends ₱60 per meal here, he'll be spending ₱180/day for meals alone. That could mean one is eating up more than half of his daily wage. That cannot be. There won't be anything left for the family if that's the case.
The worse thing here is that the government does not make anything better. I suppose the government where you are coming from is looking after the welfare of its people. The government here can only offer lip service.
The wealth gap is unfathomable. People complain about it in America, but its like 5x wider here. The middle class are about 100x richer than the poor. I can't understand how some people can make 180 pesos a day (approx. $3.60) and some make 5,000 per day. That's the width of the middle class. Millions make even less than 180 per day. All I can do is be thankful that I was born where I was born - which allowed me to have the privileges that I do - and try to be humble about it. The last thing I would ever do is be a douche nozzle to the locals because of it.
Yes, the gap between the layers of society is a real scourge of people. But how to deal with it? Some countries seem to have dealt with this, but I do not understand enough how they dealt with it.